Grant of Radio, Radiotelephone and Radiotelegraph Franchise to Manila Radiotelephone Co., Inc.

June 17, 1961

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 3255

AN ACT GRANTING THE MANILA RADIOTELEPHONE COMPANY, INCORPORATED, A FRANCHISE TO ESTABLISH RADIO, RADIOTELEPHONE AND RADIOTELEGRAPH STATIONS FOR DOMESTIC TELECOMMUNICATION

SECTION 1. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution and of Act Numbered Three thousand eight hundred and forty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the regulation of radio stations and radio communications in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes;" Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred forty-six, known as the Public Service Act, and their amendments, and other applicable laws, there is hereby granted to the Manila Radiotelephone Company, Incorporated, its successors or assigns, and hereunder referred to as the "grantee," the right and privilege of constructing, installing, establishing and operating in the Philippines, at such places as the grantee may select and the Secretary of Public Works and Communications may approve, radio stations for the reception and transmission of messages on radio stations in domestic public fixed point-to-point and public base, aeronautical and land mobile stations, including coastal marine service with the corresponding relay stations for the reception and transmission of wireless messages on radiotelegraphy and/or radiotelephony, radio teletype, radiophoto, facsimile, music, pictures, advertisement and such other types of emission within the Philippines and with vessels at sea and aircrafts over the air within the Philippines. casia

SECTION 2. A special right reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, rebellion, public peril, calamity, disaster or disturbance of peace or order, to take over and operate the said stations or to authorize the temporary use and operation thereof by any department of the Government without compensating the grantee for the use of said stations during the period when they shall be so operated.

SECTION 3. The President of the Philippines shall have the power and authority to permit the construction of said stations or any of them on any land of the public domain upon such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.

SECTION 4. This franchise shall continue for a period of twenty-five years from the date the first of said stations shall be placed in operation, and is granted upon the express condition that the same shall be void unless the construction of said station be begun within two years from the date of the approval of this Act and be completed within ten years from said date.

SECTION 5. (a) This franchise shall not take effect nor shall any power thereunder be exercised by the grantee until the Secretary of Public Works and Communications shall have allotted to the grantee the frequencies and wave lengths to be used thereunder and determined the stations to and from which each frequency and wave length may be used, and issued to the grantee a license for such use. (b) The Secretary of Public Works and Communications, on reasonable notice to the grantee, may at any time change, or cancel, or modify, in whole or in part, any or all of the allotments of frequencies or wave lengths to be used. He may take such action: (1) whenever in his judgment such frequencies and wave lengths have been used, or there is danger that they will be used by the grantee to impair electrical communication, or stifle competition, or to obtain a monopoly in electrical communication or to secure unreasonable rates for such communication, or to violate otherwise the laws or public policy of the Philippine Republic; (2) whenever in his judgment the public interest require that such frequencies or wave lengths should be used for other purposes than those of the grantee, either by the Government of the Philippines or by the other individuals or corporations licensed by it; and (3) whenever in his judgment, for any reason, the public interest so require.

SECTION 6. The station of the grantee shall be so constructed and operated and the wave lengths so selected as to avoid interference with existing stations and to permit the expansion the grantee's services.

SECTION 7. The grantee shall hold the national, provincial, and municipal governments harmless from all claims, demands or actions arising out of accidents or injuries, whether to property or to persons, caused by the construction or operation of the stations of the grantee. cd

SECTION 8. No private property shall be taken for any purpose by the grantee without proper condemnation proceedings and just compensation paid or tendered therefor, and any authority to take and occupy land contained herein shall not apply for the taking, use, or occupation of any land except such as is required for the actual necessary purposes for which this franchise is granted.

SECTION 9. The grantee shall keep an account of the gross receipts of its business and shall furnish the Auditor General and the Treasurer of the Philippines with a copy of such account not later than the thirty-first day of January of each year for the preceding year. All the books and accounts of the grantee pertaining to its business shall be subject to the official inspection of the Auditor General or his authorized representatives, and the audit and approval of such accounts shall be final and conclusive evidence as to the amount of said gross receipts, except that the grantee shall have the right to appeal to the courts of the Philippines under the terms and conditions provided in the laws of the Philippines. cdt

SECTION 10. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this franchise nor the rights and privileges acquired thereunder to any person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity nor merge with any other person, company or corporation organized for the same purpose, without the approval of the Congress of the Philippines first had. Any corporation to which this franchise may be sold, transferred, or assigned, shall be subject to the corporation laws of the Philippines now existing or hereafter enacted, and any person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity to which this franchise is sold, transferred, or assigned shall be subject to all conditions, terms, restrictions and limitations of this franchise as fully and completely and to the same extent as if the franchise have been originally granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity.

SECTION 11. The grantee, its successors or assigns, shall be subject to the corporation laws of the Philippines now existing or hereafter enacted.

SECTION 12. The grantee shall file a bond in the amount of fifty thousand pesos to guarantee the full compliance and fulfillment of the conditions under which this franchise is granted. If after four years from the date of the approval of this Act, the grantee shall have fulfilled said conditions, or as soon thereafter as the grantee shall have fulfilled the same, the bond aforesaid shall be cancelled by the Government.

SECTION 13. In the event of any competing individual, partnership or corporation receiving from the Congress of the Philippines a similar franchise in which there shall be any term or terms more favorable than those herein granted or tending to place the herein grantee at any disadvantage, then such term or terms shall ipso facto become a part of the terms hereof and shall operate equally in favor of the grantee as in the case of said competing individual, partnership or corporation.

SECTION 14. (a) The grantee shall be liable to pay the same taxes on its real estate, buildings and personal property, exclusive of the franchise, as other persons or corporations are now or hereafter may be required by law to pay. (b) The grantee shall further pay to the Treasurer of the Philippines each year, within ten days after the audit and approval of the accounts as prescribed in this Act one and one-half per centum of all gross receipts from the business transacted under this franchise by the said grantee.

SECTION 15. The franchise hereby granted shall be subject to amendment, alteration, or repeal by the Congress of the Philippines when the public interest so requires.

SECTION 16. This franchise shall not be interpreted to mean an exclusive grant of the privileges herein provided for.

SECTION 17. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 17, 1961. cd

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 58, No. 8, p. 1477 on February 19, 1962